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Thursday, June 13, 2013

TBR welcomes John D. Cressler

TBR: Welcome to TBR, John. Will you
share a little bit about yourself?Cressler: I am an engineering professor at Georgia
Tech, in Atlanta. I have previously published five non-fiction books, two for
general audiences, but my dream has always been to write fiction. Emeralds of the Alhambra is my debut
historical novel, an interfaith love story set in 14th century
Muslim Spain.

TBR: Tell us about Emeralds of the Alhambra.Cressler: First, a little background. One magical
day as I was researching where and when I wanted to locate my novel, I stumbled
upon medieval Muslim Spain (al-Andalus), something I knew virtually nothing
about at the time. The more I explored the more excited I became, particularly
since this period of history is so rich in its message for our modern conflicted
world, and yet so little appreciated by most people. Imagine, a period of
several hundred years with Muslims, Jews, and Christians found a way to live
together in harmony! Here was an existence proof that religious tolerance and
peace could indeed be achieved. To my mind, this is a message our world
desperately needs to recall. I wanted to break open medieval Muslim Spain in a
compelling way that would be engaging to a broad audience, and I settled on an
interfaith love story set during a key point in medieval Spain’s history. Emeralds is set in the resplendent
Alhambra Palace, in Granada, Spain, during the Castilian Civil War (1367-1369),
a time when, remarkably, Muslims took up their swords to fight alongside
Christians. The story centers on the relationship between William Chandon, a
wounded Christian knight brought to Granada, and the Sufi Muslim princess,
Layla al-Khatib. As Chandon’s influence at court grows, he becomes trapped
between his forbidden love for Layla and his Christian heritage, the demands of
chivalry and political expediency. Chandon and Layla must make choices between
love and honor, war and peace, life and death, choices which ultimately will
seal Granada’s fate as the last surviving stronghold of Muslim Spain. What is
inside the covers of Emeralds?
Romance, battles, conspiracy, politics, religion, art and architecture. But
first and foremost, Emeralds is a
love story.

TBR:
Tell us about the Alhambra Palace.

Cressler:The Alhambra, what a magical place!
The Alhambra is the best preserved medieval Islamic palace in the western
world, perhaps in the whole world. It is located in Granada, in Andalusia
(al-Andalus in Arabic), in extreme southern Spain. “Alhambra” refers to the
entire walled fortress that clings to the long and narrow red-soiled ridge
overlooking Granada. The red hill itself is the source of the palace’s name
(‘al-hamra’ is Arabic for ‘red’). Unlike today, in the 14th century
the towers and walls of the Alhambra would have been white-washed and the hill
laid bare for defense, a stunning white on red contrast. The fortress is compact,
as dictated by the terrain, about one hundred yards wide and seven hundred
yards long, and is nestled within the walled and garrisoned city of Granada.
The Alhambra complex contained the Royal Palace of the Sultan, the complete
functioning town that supported it, all of the judicial and administrative
services required to run the Nasrid Kingdom, and a separately castled garrison.
The Alhambra and the walled city of Granada itself were, for all intents and
purposes, impregnable, and were never captured by force of arms, only
surrendered (in 1492 to Isabel and Fernando, the “Catholic Monarchs”).

TBR:
Tell us about the background research you did for the book.

Cressler:I spent almost nine months on
background research before laying pen to paper. The credenza in my office at
home where I write is lined with over ten feet of references on all things
al-Andalus, and which I first digested. In the fall of 2010 I spent 2+ weeks in
Spain doing on-site research: Seville, Córdoba, Jaen, and Granada. I had all I
needed factually at that point, but I still needed to absorb the scenes, burn
them into my minds’ eye. See the sky, the landscape, the architecture, and most
importantly close my eyes and bring the palace to life as it would have been
six hundred years ago. There is no substitute for this type of on-the-ground
research. I virtually lived in the Alhambra for six days, and that proved
invaluable when writing. Fortunately, the Royal Palace itself is for the most
part preserved in the same form it was when my story takes place.

TBR: How have the reviews been so
far? Tantalize us with a few endorser blurbs.Cressler: Given that the novel deals with the
interaction of Muslims, Christians and Jews, I worked hard to get
representatives from a diverse set of cultural and religious backgrounds to
review the book. A sampling is below, and the rest are on my website.

“A deeply moving and
enlightening novel on the co-existence of religions.”

─Shirin Ebadi, Nobel
Peace Prize Laureate

“…Cressler has woven
an imaginative and intricately persuasive story…[a] vivid and gorgeous world of
romance, intrigue, murder and negotiations between multiple religions in
medieval Spain…[a] story of love between human beings, for God, and for the
creation so graciously bestowed on us. A thoroughly gripping and engaging first
novel.”

─Professor Susan
Abraham, Harvard Divinity School

“…Seamlessly weaves
history, religion, passion, loyalty and romance into a compelling,
beautifully-written narrative which brings [the reader] into the richness,
majesty and complexities of this different, yet alluring world…”

“…A work of honesty
and sensitivity that renders in depth, and with painterly detail, the living
contours of a great civilization that the modern world needs to re-discover…A
moving story of love across boundaries, set at a critical point in history…with
unmatched and vivid descriptions of place, lifestyle, manners and practices…”

─Salma Khadra Jayyusi,
poet, writer, and literary historian. Founder and Director of EAST-WEST
NEXUS/PROTA for the dissemination in English of Arabic cultural achievements

“A captivating love story that speaks deeply
to the purest and most humane places of the heart. A highly enjoyable and
enthusing novel.”

“Emeralds of the
Alhambra has it all – mystery, intrigue, duels and interfaith romance…Cressler
artfully draws us into the fascinating lives of the novel’s main characters
with vivid prose. We experience the blows and blood of the fierce battles
between enemies, as well as the luminosity and laughter of spell-bound
lovers…Transports readers back to medieval Spain and offers them a peek behind
la Convivencia and all the rivalry, romance and complex relationships that
existed between Jews, Christians and Muslims.”

─Tayyibah Taylor,
Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Azizah Magazine

“Cressler has a
finely-tuned, sensuous capability to drink in and pass on exquisite sights,
smells, colors, sounds and tastes…[At] the deepest level…Cressler helps [the
reader] understand the…overwhelmingly powerful force that love truly is…and the
role love plays in our experience of the Divine.”

─Father Gene Barrette,
Missionaries of Our Lady of La Salette

TBR: How is medieval Muslim Spain relevant
to contemporary America?

Cressler: As all would
agree, our modern world is stained with the blood of religious conflict and
fanaticism, and yet we managed to forget that for hundreds of years in medieval
Spain, Christians, Muslims and Jews found a way to live together in relative
peace, sharing languages and customs, whispering words of love across religious
boundaries, embracing a level of mutual acceptance and respect unimaginable
today. Together, they launched one of the great intellectual and cultural
flowerings of history. Our world aches for a future graced with tolerance and
peace. To my mind, the first step in that process is to remember that peace is
indeed possible, that it has been done before and thus can be done again. My
fiction is intended to break open this fascinating time period in an engaging
manner. Emeralds
is relevant to everyone, young or old, male or female, people of all cultures,
people of all religions. Sound bold? Well, I think 99.9% of people would agree
that a more peaceful planet would be an excellent thing. While the triggers for
human conflict are inevitably complicated, one thing is certain – religious
conflict is inked all over the historical record, and since 9/11 especially,
religious conflict has been at the forefront of this conversation. Emeralds speaks to two fundamental
ideas: 1) Peaceful coexistence is demonstrably possible between religions, and
2) Love has the power to transform the human heart and thereby cross cultural
and religious boundaries in many beautiful ways. These are the BIG themes that most
interest me.

TBR:
How does writing fiction compare with writing non-fiction?

Cressler: They are
very different in many obvious ways: tone, narrative style, subject matter. I
find that writing fiction requires much more contact with your material, an
obsession of sorts. I think what I most enjoy about writing fiction are the
nearly constant unanticipated discoveries in plot and character. The creative
energy this produces is profound! Let me give you a feel for this. In writing Emeralds, I first mapped out the
synopsis in a few pages, to bind the themes and characters and historical
events that I wanted to address. Then I expanded that synopsis into a
chapter-by-chapter draft, each of which was maybe a quarter page of what
factually happens in that chapter. This allows me to make sure all the plot
twists and timing angles gel properly with the overall story trajectory. I did
this for the whole book before beginning my writing. Then, when it was time to
compose, I took the first chapter summary and expanded it into the various
chapter scenes, fleshing the chapter out to about a page, no more, so that I
had a good sense of the story that would transpire. Then I set this aside and
began composing. The magical part of the process is that inevitably the
characters and plot threads begin to deviate from the plan, assuming a life of
their own. I love this! Almost on a daily basis, as I was driving to work,
thinking about my characters, it would jump into my head, “well, of course, she
needs to do this!” or “obviously this needs to happen!” Things I had never
anticipated before actually doing the writing. That creative element is unique
to fiction and I find it deeply satisfying.

TBR: Where will Emeralds be available?Cressler: Emeralds
will be released on June 15th by Sunbury Press, a traditional
independent press in PA (75 titles a year), and is available on their website,
via Amazon, or in select bookstores, in both print and eBook formats. Reviews,
a book trailer, excerpts, background history, photographs of the Alhambra
Palace, and maps/drawings can be found on my website at:

TBR: Readers, John will give away a
free signed copy of Emeralds of the
Alhambra to one lucky commenter. He will pick a winner on Thursday, June
27thand announce the winner here. Be sure to
leave your email address so he can contact you.

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